When you think of the fastest, most-efficient way for a business to contact a customer about a problem, you obviously think of an antiquated, bloated, nearly insolvent government-operated organization that is synonymous with sloth. Oh wait — you don’t? Well, Wells Fargo apparently does.

Consumerist reader Lisa recently deposited a $500 check from a company with which she does business.

Hold on — there’s more to this story.

A little while later she’s looking online at her Wells Fargo account and sees that the check has been returned for insufficient funds and she’s been dinged with a $12 fee for her troubles.

Nice of someone to mention this to me, thought Lisa:

When I called Wells, I spoke with a rep named Susie, who first thought it was because I didn’t have an alert set up for it. After checking, she acknowledged that there is no such alert. So she transferred me to Nikki, who informed me that because returned checks like this are a “timely matter,” and not everyone checks their email, they only send such notifications by postal mail.

She said they are not permitted to send notifications such as these electronically. When I repeated that back to her for confirmation, she clarified that she wasn’t claiming they aren’t permitted *legally,” but that they aren’t permitted according to corporate policy. She asserted that Wells is in complete compliance with the law.

That may be the case, but it’s not exactly good customer service.

Making matters worse, says Lisa, is that in spite of Wells Fargo’s insistence that the best way to deal with this timely matter is to send a letter via USPS, she still has yet to receive a single notice in the mail about the bounced check.

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